2. 2
The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
Table of
Contents
Introduction 4
I. Like a rock 5
II. Watch and learn 9
III. Return to form 12
IV. The need to nurture 16
V. Trends 19
Conclusion 23
Cover photography by Getty Images
3. 3
The Global Marketer’s Guide to Localisation and Translation
“The blog is certainly not the
sexiest piece of social media,
but I think it’s certainly the
most important. It lays the
foundation for your content
strategy. None of this really
works if you don’t have some
sort of story.”
—JASON MILLER, GLOBAL CONTENT MARKETING LEADER AT LINKEDIN
4. 4
The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
Five years ago, if you asked Jason Miller to pick lead
generation or brand awareness as the most important
part of B2B marketing, he would’ve chosen lead
generation without hesitating. But since then, things
have changed.
Miller, who worked as the senior manager of social
media strategy for Marketo until 2013, now serves as
global content marketing leader at LinkedIn, where
he’s responsible for developing content that helps turn
the network’s 450 million users into leads who may be
interested in paying for LinkedIn’s business solutions
and premium subscriptions. As his team has published
more on the company’s Marketing Solutions blog,
they’ve learned firsthand that you can’t just push lead
generation without putting time into brand awareness.
“It used to be gate everything and don’t give away
any content for free,” he said. “Now I see you have
to find a balance, to have an engine and a blog that
creates content to drive awareness to that bigger
piece of high-value [lead gen] content.”
This balance tells us a lot about the ways businesses
have to communicate with today’s consumers. If all
you’re doing is hitting people up for information, you
risk undermining trust and pushing potential readers
elsewhere. But if you publish a blog without the right
system in place to capture and score leads, then your
efforts won’t lead to ROI.
So how can you pursue leads without compromising
your relationship with your audience?
In this e-book, we’ll examine how forward-thinking
companies have taken innovative approaches with
their content, detail ways to improve lead-form
conversions, and explore what the future of lead gen
content may look like.
Introduction
5. 5
The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
I.
Like a rock
Miller is probably best known for introducing “big
rock” into the marketing lexicon. The term describes
“a substantial piece of content based on the idea of
becoming the definitive guide to a conversation that
you want to own.” The most traditional type of big rock
is the e-book—like the one you’re reading right now.
Big rocks are essential for a number of reasons. They
tend to offer significant value to the audience compared
to the average blog post. They help companies and
individuals establish a clear point of view on key
issues in their industry. And most importantly, they
are efficient investments that can drive both leads and
awareness for a long period of time.
7. 7
The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
“The beautiful thing is that we just revive it every year,” he explained. “Maybe change
the cover, change the creative. We change the creative quite a bit because we do so much
testing on everything to see what really resonates.”
Since 2014, LinkedIn has sliced and diced the 56 pages into shorter stories that have no
problem standing on their own. And at the bottom of each repackaged blog post, readers
will find a call-to-action with a link to a lead form for the original asset.
“The blog is certainly not the sexiest piece of social media, but I think it’s certainly the
most important,” Miller said. “It lays the foundation for your content strategy. None of
this really works if you don’t have some sort of story.”
At Contently, we use a similar approach to maximize our investment in our biggest stories.
We’ve found that longer e-book excerpts—which may end up weighing in at 1,500 words—
consistently result in more downloads.
For example, in July, Contently associate editor Dillon Baker wrote “Media 2020: The
Marketer’s Guide to the Present and Future of the Internet,” a 30-page e-book about
how the evolution of media and technology will impact digital marketing. To extend its
shelf-life after the initial rush of downloads, we chopped the asset up into three additional
articles that were published separately over the following month. While the main e-book
generated over 2,100 downloads, the excerpts brought in more than 400 subsequent leads.
I. Like a rock
8. 8
The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
I. Like a rock
Even though readers could gather a good chunk of the
e-book piece by piece on our website without filling
out a lead form, we were confident that the excerpts
provided enough value in exchange for their contact
information. Additionally, our social media editor
promoted those three standalone articles with paid
spend on social distribution networks (like Facebook) to
get our content in front of a larger audience.
Producing a big rock can cost thousands of dollars if you
add together the creation, design, and promotion. Only
promoting that major asset one time is just a wasted
opportunity. Webinars, podcasts, infographics, and
slideshows are all effective ways to divide your big rock
into valuable pieces.
“It starts with one remarkable piece of content that you
researched the hell out of, that tackles the topic better
than anyone else.” Miller said. “More with less, that’s
where the big rock comes in.”
“[Big rocks] start with one remarkable piece of content that you researched the hell
out of, that tackles the topic better than anyone else.”
9. The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
9
E-books aren’t the only big rocks capable of driving leads
to your business. Recently, video has emerged as one
way for content marketers to separate themselves from
the pack. In fact, Unbounce, a landing page software
company, discovered that adding video to a landing page
can lift conversions by 80 percent. And a 2014 Google
study found that 70 percent of B2B buyers are watching
video throughout their purchase process—a 52 percent
bump compared to 2012.
“We believe that interactive video is the best technique
to not only drive leads to purchase, but to accelerate
the lead cycle to purchase,” said Jennifer Burak, VP
of marketing at Rapt Media, a video platform based out
of Colorado.
II.
Watch and learn
10. 10
The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
II. Watch and learn
Rapt specializes in interactive multimedia content that lets the
viewer select different narrative paths. (The concept is referred to
as “branching.” If you ever read Goosebumps books growing up,
you’ll know it as choose-your-own-adventure stories.) Branching
video isn’t just a cool visual element; it also gives Rapt a unique way
to understand how its viewers think and prioritize information.
“We use choice points within our interactive videos to learn more
about the buyer’s preferences, and then we can personalize future
communications to them based on their choices.” Burak added.
“When you let your customers interact with your content, they make
choices that are relevant to them, and you learn more about them
each time they click a button within the video. This helps you create
better content and continue to optimize your existing content.”
In January 2015, Rapt produced its most ambitious piece of content,
a three-part series titled “The Future of Content,” which incorporated
both interactive animated videos and PDFs with data analysis and
playful illustrations. The report was built off of a series of surveys the
company sent out to 500 marketers and 1,000 consumers.
“The Future of Content” generated more press coverage than
any of Rapt’s other campaigns, and brought major brands
including Disney and Caterpillar into the sales cycle.
11. The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
11
Rapt pursued all possible distribution channels to spread the word, including email,
social media accounts, paid social distribution, and external PR placements. In the
end, the company was able to accomplish two critical goals: One, it gave the internet
a reliable report that covered how marketers and consumers feel about topics like
content personalization, ad blockers, and branding. And two, it was able to make a case
for the importance of personalized video content without just shilling its own product.
According to Rapt, “The Future of Content” generated more press coverage than any of
its other campaigns. The project also had 40 percent conversions to “sales-ready leads,”
which brought major brands including Disney and Caterpillar into the sales cycle.
“Video creates an emotional connection with your audience by putting them in the
driver’s seat, which is so critical because we are all visual communicators,” Burak said.
“If viewers feel that your content is high quality and that they’re actually benefiting
from it, a sense of positivity and trust is formed that then comes back to you, making
your relationship with the viewer stronger. You can leverage that gratitude in exchange
for getting your audience to complete whatever action you want them to do.”
II. Watch and learn
When you let your
customers interact with
your content, they make
choices that are relevant
to them, and you learn
more about them each
time they click a button
within the video.”
— JENNIFER BURAK, VP OF MARKETING
AT RAPT MEDIA
“
12. 12
The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
Say you’re walking on the sidewalk, minding your own business on the way back
from lunch, when you lock eyes with a street canvasser. The canvasser, dressed in
some ill-fitting mesh vest and a visor, gets ready to sell you on a good cause. You
want to support the cause, but you also hate the intrusion of the hard sell and don’t
want to give away your personal information. She opens her mouth to initiate small
talk, but you walk right by, avoiding eye contact and trying to stifle the guilt.
Lead forms are the canvassers of the marketing world. In any exchange of value, both
sides need to evaluate whether they’re getting something useful in return. On the
street, it’s not worth it for most people to take out a credit card and hand over sensitive
information to donate to a charity when they can just do so on the computer in their
homes. Perhaps if the canvassers only wanted a name or an email address, they’d have
more access. Likewise, when brands and publishers gate their content, the success of
an e-book or a video will likely come down to how much they ask for in return.
How many fields should you include in the lead form? What do you prioritize? Should
you ask for a phone number? Do you need to care about age? Location? What about
placement—do you want the form to be the first thing someone sees on a web page?
III.
Return to form
13. The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
13III. Return to form
Here’s an
example of
a lead form
we use on
The Content
Strategist:
Despite looking fairly basic, lead forms
come with their own special sort of
marketing calculus. Even if you have a
brilliant piece of content hiding behind
the gate, nobody is going to see it if
you turn people away by asking for too
much information on a form.
Research from Docalytics, an analytics
and tracking company acquired by
Contently in 2016, found that forms with
only three fields have an average
conversion rate of 25 percent, but that
rate drops to 15 percent for forms with
six or more fields.
“I think the perfect ideal scenario is
to start with an email address,” Miller
said. “Then keep that person engaged
with content and you progress your
profiling, taking a little bit of information
each time.”
14. 14
The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
In 2011, Marketo conducted a study on different lead forms and found that shorter
forms of five fields outperform longer forms of seven or nine fields. A five-field form
had a cost-per-lead of $31.24, while the cost-per-lead was $34.94 for seven fields and
$41.90 for nine fields. The shorter form also boasted a 13.4 percent conversion rate
while the other two options were both under 12 percent.
If marketers want to maximize how many leads they bring in, then they have to
be economical with their forms. Certain third-party tools, like Clearbit, can look up
a person’s information off of an email. Others, including Marketo, can pinpoint a
user’s approximate location from an IP address, which means you won’t need to ask
for an address.
Another way to get more people to fill out a form and download your content is to
optimize the call-to-action (CTA). Marketers would be wise to do a little research
rather than going off of intuition, because one word can have a big impact on your
conversion rate.
I think the perfect ideal
scenario is to start with
an email address [...]
then keep that person
engaged with content
and you progress your
profiling, taking a little bit
of information each time..”
— JASON MILLER, GLOBAL CONTENT
MARKETING LEADER AT LINKEDIN
“
III. Return to form
15. 15
The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
III. Return to form
Two years ago, Formstack, a form builder software
company, surveyed 400,000 people and found that
the most common CTA button copy—words like
“Submit,” “Subscribe,” and “Send”—weren’t the most
effective ways to drive leads. Simply changing a button
that reads “Register” to “Register Now!” improved
conversions by five percentage points.
Lastly, it’s in your best interest to make the process
as simple as possible for anyone who comes across your
lead form. Add an auto-fill functionality so potential
leads don’t have to waste time typing in their names and
contact information. Perhaps you can offer an external
log-in option, which lets your audience fill forms with
social profiles on networks like Facebook and Twitter.
These may seem like minor tweaks, but when you’re
making that hard sell, each second matters.
12
T H E 2 0 1 4 F O R M C O N V E R S I O N R E P O R T
Submit Button Conversion Metrics
Think about the moment when your user is hovering over the submit button. It’s the last
opportunity to convince them to click, and it’s important. Don’t believe us? Check out these two lists
below: the most popular Formstack submit buttons and the highest converting. As you can see,
changing just one word on your website can result in 2.5 times the conversions.
Register
Submit Order
Subscribe
Send
Submit
Submit Form
Register
Submit Request
Envoyer*
Register Now!
Submit Application
Submit Registration5.33%
1.34%
7.78%
3.01%
7.75%
10.66%
18.72%
16.66%
15.67%
15.47%
10.66%
12.4%
Most Popular Highest Conversions
*”Envoyer” is French for “Send”
Image via Formstack
16. 16
The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
Any e-book about lead generation wouldn’t be complete without discussing lead
nurturing, which is the process of communicating with prospects once they give
you their information.
Encouraging leads to become clients takes time. Marketo discovered that 50 percent
of the leads in any system are not yet ready to buy. So there should always be a healthy
balance between content at the top of the marketing funnel (articles, infographics) and
big rocks in the middle of the funnel that can help your prospects address key issues.
“You want valuable content that will rank over a long period of time, to continuously
drive more and more demand,” said HubSpot demand generation manager Amanda
Sibley. “Offer the readers enough value in the blog post that they trust you as a person
or company that can help them solve a problem, and you then offer something even
more robust to dive deeper into their problem.”
IV.
The need to nurture
You want valuable content
that will rank over a
long period of time, to
continuously drive more
and more demand”
— AMANDA SIBLEY, DEMAND
GENERATION MANAGER AT HUBSPOT
“
17. 17
The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
HubSpot, which sells inbound marketing software, has stocked its respected blog over
the last few years with helpful content meant to educate leads. For instance, HubSpot
consistently covers infographics—both work from other publishers as well as its own
creations. Every week, you can find a new post about a high-quality infographic that’s
designed to educate the reader on a marketing topic.
Once HubSpot built up enough credibility on the topic, it decided to capitalize
with a more ambitious piece of content that could drive leads. Sibley pointed to “15
Free Infographic Templates in Powerpoint” as a major asset that makes life easier
for HubSpot’s audience.
“It’s great utility content that appeals to a large market,” she said. “ If possible,
create utility-type content [like a] template or tool that can help them. We have found
that the templates we create for our audience are some of our highest performing
offers, especially when paired with a relevant blog post.”
Eventually, though, you want to pursue relationships with a more focused target
audience. Segmenting based on different factors like industry, title, and behavior
is key because it allows you to deliver content that can both identify and solve your
audience’s problems, which could convince people to become clients down the line.
IV. The need to nurture
Every week, HubSpot covers an infographic that’s designed to educate readers on a marketing topic.
18. 18
The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
One of the surest ways to nurture an audience through the marketing
funnel is email. Many marketers like to use a drip campaign, which
is a schedule of automated emails that go out based on certain
user behaviors. While drip campaigns can be effective if structured
sparingly, they also run the risk of spamming prospects. That’s why
email newsletters are so important if you publish content.
Organic traffic is great, but when you’re starting out, newsletters give
marketers a steady connection to subscribers. As the subscriber list
grows, you will eventually be able to segment it based on your needs.
As Neil Patel, an entrepreneur who’s built audiences of over 100,000
monthly visitors for three blogs, told Contently editor-in-chief Joe
Lazauskas: “In terms of distribution, it’s the biggest thing you can do.”
At Contently, we publish two newsletters: a daily email that goes to
60,000 readers and a weekly email that goes to 90,000. With our email
service provider (ESP), we can now send different pieces of content
to certain segments. If we run a story about content approval inside a
finance company, we can deliver the article just to finance marketers
on our daily list. Ideally, that granular targeting makes it easier to give
audience segments the most relevant content we have.
IV. The need to nurture
19. 19
The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
The stories you choose to tell will always be a crucial part of a lead gen strategy,
but how you tell those stories is also extremely important. Here are three lead
generation trends on the rise that could boost your content efforts.
PERSONALIZATION
Personalized content isn’t exactly new. Every time you log in to Amazon, Spotify, or
Netflix, you see recommendations based on your behavior. But marketers are starting
to use personalization more for other kinds of content, particularly in a space like B2B,
to improve lead nurturing.
According to a March 2016 study Demand Metric conducted in partnership with
Seismic, 61 percent of businesses have incorporated personalization into their content
marketing strategies. And for those that do, 80 percent claimed that personalized
content was more effective than unpersonalized content.
V.
Trends
20. The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
20V. Trends
With the proper setup, you can
serve the right content to the right
audience at the right time. Best of
all, a lot of personalization functions
anonymously. You can optimize your
blog to serve a particular e-book
or article on a homepage based on a
user’s previous behavior.
Image via Demand Metric
21. The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
21
ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING
Account-based marketing (ABM) flips the usual process marketers
use to bring in clients. Instead of casting a wide net as you build
an audience, this model relies on immediate specificity: Marketers
focus only on their ideal customers and narrow the funnel as
much as possible.
Last year, more than 60 percent of marketers said they expected to
invest in ABM technology to “better align sales and marketing,” per
a SiriusDecisions survey.
While this approach can be risky if you’re unable to win over your
targeted customers, ABM does give content creators clear direction.
This level of refinement makes it harder for marketers to waste money
producing top-of-funnel content that doesn’t drive leads.
In a 2015 SlideShare, Engagio CEO Jon Miller described ABM like
“fishing with a spear,” as opposed to traditional marketing, which
is more akin to fishing with a net.
V. Trends
22. The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
22
PARTNERSHIPS
After a while, even if you’re consistently publishing great content on your blog,
you can exhaust your ability to drive leads. That’s why partnerships are such an
important trend for sustained growth.
Content partnerships give marketers a chance to get in front of a new set of leads
who aren’t in your system already. The goal is to find a company who operates in
your industry but isn’t a direct competitor. Contently, for example, partners with
companies like HubSpot, AMA, and CMI on projects like webinars, co-sponsored
studies, and email newsletter sponsorships.
After the content portion of the partnership ends, both sides put together a joint
list of contacts and try to get new leads to convert.
V. Trends
23. 23
The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
According to Forbes, 93 percent of B2B marketers claim content marketing drives
more leads than traditional marketing. Why? Because content gives marketers the
opportunity to have a voice and help their potential customers solve their most
pressing issues.
If you’re going to master the art of lead generation, you need to start with high-quality
content. Whether you’re producing an e-book, shooting a video, or just starting to
build an audience, remember that. There are tips and tricks that can make you more
efficient, but driving leads ultimately comes back to a fair exchange of value between
company and audience.
“I think a lot of people over-complicate the process of lead generation,” Jason Miller
said. “If you start at the core, which is answering questions with content and gating it
based on value, that’s really what it’s all about.”
Conclusion
If you start at the core,
which is answering
questions with content
and gating it based on
value, that’s really what
it’s all about.”
— JASON MILLER, GLOBAL CONTENT
MARKETING LEADER AT LINKEDIN
“
24. Introduction 24
The Content Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation
Want more insights into the state
of content marketing?
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subscribe to The Content Strategist.
And if you’d like to talk to someone about
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sales@contently.com or visit contently.com.
Thank
you.
